LET me start off this month by saying “Thank you.” Thank you for all the tremendous feedback and supportive e-mails. Thank you for telling your friends about our site. Our tracking shows that ‘friend’ is the number one traffic driver to PC Pitstop. Thank you for purchasing things through our site. And thank you to all the writers who have chosen to write about us in PC World, Money Magazine, Access Magazine–and a special thank you to everyone at ZD-TV (now called TechTV).
But I also want to say thank you to the great people at PC Pitstop. We would not have PC Pitstop without Martin and David and their technical vision and leadership. Jennie and Paul are our Web team, and they have done a great job of lending a new professional look and creativity to our services. Tirzah’s been great on our support boards. And I can’t leave out the behind-the-scenes people: Sheila and Lyle. Thank you, everyone.
When I was at Gateway, we had numerous sayings for “it”: “If you’re not eating, then you’re being eaten.” “Be happy, but never satisfied.” “Don’t hurt yourself patting yourself on the back.” And so on. “It” all has to do with the relentless pursuit of improvement. At PC Pitstop, I am proud to say we share these philosophies.
We’ve added a very cool feature to the site: E-mail a page. Although a fairly straightforward feature, it’s amazingly powerful when you combine it with the Pitstop. Now you can e-mail your test results to yourself. E-mail them to a friend so you can compare performance and diagnostics. Even better, e-mail them to a support technician to quickly diagnose the root of a problem. Check the bottoms of our pages for the option.
Strategically, we’ve been working quite a bit on our Internet Connection Center. Ladies and gentlemen, broadband is coming! Whether it’s DSL or cable modems, faster access is just around the corner and coming to your home and business. Just as powerful as the PC itself, broadband promises to change the way we work, play and live. Everyone at the Pitstop has either a DSL or cable-modem connection. And guess what? We’ve all had our fair share of issues getting them running at peak performance. So we put our heads together and are developing technologies to assess the performance of your broadband connection, and we’re working to provide tips and tweaks to improve the performance. Hope you like it.
Here’s an e-mail that I receive a lot: “I love your site; what can I do to help keep it free?” First off, we are committed to keeping the site free. And here’s my short list of things you can do to contribute to PC Pitstop’s continued growth:
- Tell your friends. We don’t spend money on advertising or PR. We depend on you to spread the word.
- Give feedback. Check out our support BBS, and give your feedback–whether it’s good, bad or indifferent.
- Be part of the BBS. Our BBS is growing quickly, and we want all Pitstop visitors to be part of it. It’ll help us develop a sense of community, not just technologies.
- Buy Gateway PCs through our site. I’m not pushing here, just suggesting. If you’re in the market for a new PC, check out what Gateway and PC Pitstop have to offer. And, most importantly, if you do purchase please make sure you use the Pitstop promotion code. You’ll get a better deal, and PC Pitstop will get credit for the sale.
- Buy from Amazon through PC Pitstop. If you’re going to buy something from Amazon, please follow the link from PC Pitstop; you’ll find it in our navigation column to the left. PC Pitstop gets credit for everything you buy from Amazon, not just the things we recommend. So if you’re going to buy from Amazon, please go through the Pitstop first. Yes, it’s a couple of extra clicks, but it’s very important to us (and you).
- Check out our research. We’re compiling some fascinating information about PCs. We have a very cost-efficient and accurate research engine.
Well that’s it! Have a great month–and be happy, but never satisfied.
Rob Cheng
CEO PC Pitstop LLC
